How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
"Look out there, Cassie girl. All that belongs to you. You ain't never had to live on nobody's place but your own and long as I live and the family survives, you'll never have to. That's important. You may not understand that now, but one day you will. Then you'll see." (1.17)
It's all about independence for Papa. And the land that they own allows them to have more independence than the vast majority of the other black people in the area. (Well, when you put it like that, it makes sense.)
Quote #2
Some if it belonged to Stacey, Christopher-John, and Little Man, not to mention the part that belonged to Big Ma, Mama, and Uncle Hammer [...] But Papa never divided the land in his mind; it was simply Logan land. (1.18)
Why is it so important for Papa to think of the land as whole and undivided, even though parts of it actually belong to different family members? Do you think this has anything to do with why Big Ma later signs over ownership to the land to Papa and Uncle Hammer?
Quote #3
"They go away, they always come back to it. Couldn't leave it […] [N]ow all the boys I got is my baby boys, your papa and your Uncle Hammer, and this they place as much as it is mine. They blood's in this land, and here that Harlan Granger always talkin' 'bout buyin' it." (4.236-37)
This is Big Ma talking about the Logan land. Their connection to the land is deep—their "blood's in this land." Does working the land and being willing to fight for it (in some cases, literally shedding blood) mean more than the the type of ownership Mr. Granger wants to assert?
Quote #4
"If you remember nothing else in your whole life, Cassie girl, remember this: We ain't never gonna lose this land." (7.68)
Never say "Never," Papa—especially considering the danger the land is in at the end of the book. Here, though, Papa tries to reassure Cassie when she's afraid they'll lose the land if they use it to back people's credit.
Quote #5
As we neared the pond, the forest gapped open into a wide, brown glade, man-made by the felling of many trees, some of them still on the ground. They had been cut during the summer after Mr. Andersen came from Strawberry with an offer to buy the trees. The offer was backed with a threat, and Big Ma was afraid. So Andersen's lumbermen came, chopping and sawing, destroying the fine old trees. Papa was away on the railroad then but Mama sent Stacey for him. He returned and stopped the cutting, but not before many of the trees had already fallen. (4.214)
Okay, seriously. This is low behavior. Here, Cassie remembers when a white businessman threatened to make the Logans sell some of their trees. What threats now face the Logan land? What could be the consequences of fighting back against these threats?
Quote #6
"For a while we stood looking again at the destruction, then, sitting on one of our fallen friends, we talked in quiet, respectful tones, observing the soft mourning of the forest" (8.33).
Cassie and Big Ma show respect for their land and the things that are nurtured upon it. So, she's not out cavorting with sparrows and squirrels like Sleeping Beauty, but Cassie does seem to have a real connection with nature throughout the novel.
Quote #7
"You were born blessed, boy, with land of your own. If you hadn't been, you'd cry out for it while you try to survive . . . like Mr. Lanier and Mr. Avery. Maybe even do what they doing now. It's hard on a man to give up, but sometimes it seems there just ain't nothing else he can do." (9.87)
Do you blame Mr. Lanier and Mr. Avery for giving up? Why or why not?
Quote #8
"What good's a car? It can't grow cotton. You can't build a home on it. And you can't raise four fine babies in it." (10.164)
So they drive the same car... so what? Here's the big difference between Uncle Hammer and Mr. Granger. Even though they're both fairly well-off, and both drive the same slick Packard car, in the end, Uncle Hammer is a generous man willing to sacrifice for his family, while Mr. Granger is just a greedy man who cares more about his land than about human life.
Quote #9
"You see that fig tree over yonder, Cassie? Them other trees all around . . . that oak and walnut, they're a lot bigger and they take up more room and give so much shade they almost overshadow that little ole fig. But that fig tree's got roots that run deep, and it belongs in that yard as much as that oak and walnut. It keeps on blooming, bearing good fruit year after year, knowing all the time it'll never get as big as them other trees. Just keeps on growing and doing what it gotta do. It don't give up. It give up, it'll die. There's a lesson to be learned from that little tree, Cassie girl, 'cause we're like it. We keep doing what we gotta, and we don't give up. We can't." (9.91)
If you guessed that this passage is important because it's one of the only extended metaphors in the novel, you're totally correct. The fig tree is one of the major symbols in the book, and stands for the Logan family and its connection to the land.
Quote #10
Near the slope where once cotton stalks had stood, their brown bolls popping with tiny puffs of cotton, the land was charred, desolate, black, still steaming from the night. (12.85)
So this is why Cassie cries for the land at the end of the book: it's been wounded. Plus, the "still steaming" imagery means that the struggle isn't over yet. Since a quarter of Papa's cotton crop was destroyed, the Logan family land is in serious danger.